Mooney M20C — Woodbine, NJ

What happened

The pilot was taking off for a personal flight. According to onboard data, when the airplane reached about 150 ft above ground level, the pitch began to increase; over the next 4 seconds, the airplane’s altitude began to increase as the groundspeed decreased. The airplane then banked to the left and descended nose-down to impact east of the runway. A witness observed that when the airplane reached about 100 ft above the runway, the landing gear was retracted. He then he diverted his attention and shortly after, he heard an impact. The airplane was recorded by airport security video just before ground contact in a near vertical descent (consistent with stall) with the landing gear extended.

The pilot previously reported having physical difficulties manually retracting the landing gear, and as a result, he would use one hand to hold onto something in the cockpit to brace himself, and the other hand to operate the retracting handle assembly “Johnson bar.” To assist in retracting the landing gear, the pilot would also slow the airplane, which was supported by the data recorded by the Stratus 2S for the accident flight and a previous uneventful flight that was examined.

Examination of the airframe, flight controls, engine, engine systems, and landing gear system revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. It likely that the pilot intentionally increased the airplane's nose-up pitch and decreased the airplane’s speed in order to assist him retract the landing gear. The ultimate result was the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and an inadvertent stall.

An editorial "what led to it / how to avoid it" analysis for this accident is generated separately and will appear here.